Google's War Against Popups Continues in All Its Self-Serving Glory

If you have not gotten the message yet, here it comes again, for what feels like the millionth time: don't use popups; they annoy users and guess who else? That's right, Google.

According to a new Coalition for Better Ads report, pop-ups are responsible for a whopping 97 percent of noted violations of their standards on desktop, while 50 percent of users say they would not revisit or recommend a page that had a pop-up ad.

Popups seem to be effective however (why else would websites use them), so why is Google so keen on getting publishers to stop using the ad format?

Sixty-nine percent of people who installed ad blockers said they were motivated to do so by annoying or intrusive ads. When ads are blocked, of course, publishers don’t make money.

But you know what? Guess who else doesn't make money? That's right (I knew deep down you knew)... neither does Google.

Google is pushing the matter even further and taking the matter into its own hands it seems by introducing their very own ad blocker into the Chrome browser early next year (it has already been seen in some developer builds), a move that’s particularly significant, considering Chrome is the dominant Web browser, with nearly 42 percent market share.

Of course, that’s also opened up speculation about how Google will use this power. Will they block only non-Google ads? Unlikely. Google says their process will be driven by the standards outlined by the Coalition for Better Ads (on which Google plays a major role of course) which says it won’t exempt Google ad content.